


Heroes Like Us Don’t Believe in Fairytales

by Aurae



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 300bpm Flash Exchange November 2019, Character Study, Crisis of Faith, Flash Fic, Gen, Hope, Inspired by Music, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21585760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurae/pseuds/Aurae
Summary: Leia had been perfectly polite, perfectly respectful. She’d humored him. Of course she had. She was a politician and a princess, and that was just appropriate diplomatic behavior. But secretly? She’d thought Luke’s philosophy of the Force sounded like so much dodgy moof milk.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Rey
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25
Collections: 300bpm Flash Exchange November 2019





	Heroes Like Us Don’t Believe in Fairytales

**Author's Note:**

  * For [handschuhmaus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/handschuhmaus/gifts).



> Inspired by [Герои как мы (Бабл-гам)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb5bDV0iLlk) by Ундервуд.

Leia remembered the stories her brother had told about his Jedi training.

“He had me doing one-armed handstands and lifting rocks with my mind,” Luke had said. Then he’d paused and smiled, wistful and gentle. “That was at the same time.”

She’d guffawed, trying to picture it and conjuring something ludicrous. “How big were the rocks?” she’d asked.

They hadn’t been very big, Luke had admitted sheepishly. But the true point of the exercise, he’d hastened to add, hadn’t been about the size of the rocks…or about the rocks at all, for that matter. It’d been about feeling the numinous energies of the universe, about feeling one’s place in them, about losing oneself within them and realizing that there is no difference, no division, between self and other. The rocks move because _life_ moves—because life is always in motion.

Leia had been perfectly polite, perfectly respectful. She’d humored him. Of course she had. She was a politician and a princess, and that was just appropriate diplomatic behavior. But secretly? She’d thought Luke’s philosophy of the Force sounded like so much dodgy moof milk.

Which was probably why she’d never really taken well to his attempts to train her in turn.

And after it all went wrong and everyone she’d used to call her family had abandoned her, there’d been the Resistance. _This_ , she understood. The exigencies of leadership hadn’t left much room for any all-knowing, all-powerful Force. The war against the First Order would be won through tactics, through logistics, through recruitment, through subterfuge, through resource allocation. Not through use of the Force. Not through fairy stories she hadn’t believed in since childhood. That’s not how the heroes would win.

Yet. _Yet_. Use of the Force had saved them on Crait. Her brother, his distraction. And Rey had cleared a path towards a new beginning and a brighter future.

Actually, what Rey’d done was lift a bunch of rocks with her mind. Except they weren’t just rocks. _Now_ , Leia understands.

“Thank you, Rey,” she says. “You saved us.”

“But I…I didn’t really do much of anything.” Rey’s expression wavers between pleasure at Leia’s praise and uncertainty. “It was just lifting rocks with my mind.”

“It’s not about the rocks.”

Rey’s brow furrows; she doesn’t understand. She will, though, and Leia will enjoy being here by her side to watch her grow into that understanding. Someday soon, Rey won’t just clear a path of its rocks—

_She will clear the path to victory._

Maybe, at the close of her life, Leia can believe in fairy stories once more.

END

**Author's Note:**

> Posted to the exchange on November 27, 2019.


End file.
